The lack of a good cad software (fusion 360), and no, freecad and openscad are not worthy equivalents.
I’ve been using Linux primarily for 24 years and exclusively for like… 10-12. When I HAVE to use another OS (for work or something) I miss all my tools and feel powerless. It drives me nuts.
AutoHotKey
I do like that splash screen on Windows before login, where it shows me a different beautiful landscape each day.
I’m honestly surprised that nobody has said anything about MS Office, but it’s not like I expect anyone to miss the application itself, it’s just that if your work requires you to interface with it, there really is no alternative to running Windows or MacOS. Microsoft’s own Office Online versions of the apps do a worse job of maintaining DOC/PPT formatting consistency than the possible Russian spyware that is OnlyOffice, which also screws things up too often to be relied upon. LibreOffice is, let’s be honest, a total mess (with the exception of Calc, which also isn’t consistent with the current version of Excel, but can do some things that Excel no longer can do, so I appreciate it more as a complementary tool than as a replacement).
When I switched from Windows to Linux back in 2002, I never looked back. I missed absolutely nothing. Linux offered everything I needed and more, with unmatched freedom and flexibility. In late 2008, I bought a unibody MacBook, and while macOS wasn’t bad per se, it just didn’t feel like home. I missed Linux too much, so I wiped the MacBook and installed Debian. From that moment on, I’ve never switched again—Linux has always been home. I’m currently rocking Arch (btw) on my main desktop & Debian on my laptop…
I honestly loved some of the default Windows apps, like Notepad, Paint and believe it or not, the default file manager. I find that most file explorers on Linux can’t strike a good balance between simplicity and the amount of features.
Thankfully (or not, if you use Windows) they started enshittifying each and every one of them, so there’s nothing to miss any more.
I miss targeted advertisements. It’s important that my OS tracks what my interests are, so that I can be served more relevant advertising.
Advertising that doesn’t know my interests doesn’t hold my interest, and having no ads means that I have no idea what I’m supposed to purchase next. It’s crazy.
There was a lot more I missed when I switched, can’t think of anything now. I was going to joke that I miss being 19. But eh, I’m doing better now than I was then.
Games :(
destiny 2
For some reason my computer lags a lot but that might be because I have way too many tabs.
Desktop session restore. Shut down pc, turn back on, everything like when shut down. Or on crash, sometime even kernel panic, restart and right back to work.
roblox (i miss it only a bit)
The ability to properly wake from sleep.
Not having to set my displayport version back to 2.1 upon every boot.
